No. 7 Louisville Forces 21 Turnovers and Routs Lindenwood 71-35 as Tajianna Roberts Scores 15

LOUISVILLE, Ky. The scoreboard said 71-35, but the real story at the KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday night was what No. 7 Louisville did to Lindenwood with the ball in the Lions' hands. The Cardinals forced 21 turnovers, turned them into 25 points, and held a team from just outside St. Louis to 26 percent shooting in a wire-to-wire rout on Nov. 10.

Tajianna Roberts led five Cardinals in double figures with 15 points. Carys Baker hit four 3s for 12 points and passed 1,000 career points along the way. Amiya Joyner added 11 points and 10 rebounds, Ariyana Cradle scored 11, and Grace Mbugua chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench. Louisville moved to 4-0. Lindenwood fell to 1-3.

Here is the box score (opens in a new tab), Louisville's recap (opens in a new tab) and Lindenwood's recap (opens in a new tab).

Nine points before the Lions blinked

Louisville did not waste any time. The Cardinals scored the first nine points of the game before Jarius Powers finally got Lindenwood on the board with a layup at the 6:57 mark of the first quarter. The Lions hung around long enough to trail 13-6 at the first media timeout, and then Louisville closed the period on an 8-2 run for a 21-8 lead.

Baker supplied the milestone during that stretch. The Virginia Tech transfer, who played three seasons in Blacksburg according to The Associated Press, buried a 3 late in the first quarter that pushed her past 1,000 career points. All 12 of her points came from beyond the arc, and all 12 came before halftime.

According to Louisville, the Cardinals put together five separate runs of seven or more points in this one. The most damaging came in the second quarter, when they made their first six shots of the period. Jazlyn Powell's 3 from the wing made it 28-11, but Mbugua's layup with 5:26 left in the half made it 37-13.

Louisville did cool off after that, missing five straight shots, before finishing the half on a 9-0 run and making its last four attempts. Saniah Tyler's late 3 was one of the few bright spots for Lindenwood, and the Cardinals led 47-18 at the break. By then, Louisville had already turned 15 first-half turnovers into 20 points.

Defense was the headline

Louisville's offense was uneven by its standards. The Cardinals shot 27 of 66 from the field, about 41 percent, and just 6 of 29 from 3. Coach Jeff Walz's team went 1 of 12 from deep in the second half, according to the AP. On most nights, those numbers would make for a long postgame film session.

Not on this night, because the defense never let Lindenwood breathe. The Lions shot 13 of 50 overall. According to the AP, they went 2 of 21 from the field over a stretch of more than 13 minutes, from 1:22 left in the first half until 8:10 remained in the fourth quarter. Lindenwood made just two baskets in the entire third quarter and went more than five minutes without scoring, per Louisville.

The steals told the same story. Louisville finished with 13 of them, led by four from Zamareya Jones and three each from Roberts, Imari Berry and Cradle. Lindenwood committed a season-high 21 turnovers, according to the AP, and the Cardinals outscored the Lions 10-0 in fast break points. Louisville has now forced at least 18 turnovers in every game this season, according to the school.

The Cardinals also owned the paint, 32-14, and the glass, 46-31. Lindenwood never led and never tied the game. Louisville's largest lead reached 38, at 62-24 heading into the fourth quarter after a 15-6 third period.

Joyner and the frontcourt

Joyner was the most efficient player on the floor. The former LSU forward went 5 of 7 from the field and grabbed 10 rebounds, including four on the offensive end, in only 15 minutes. She also blocked three shots. Louisville said it was the 51st double-double of her career and her first of the season, and she locked it up midway through the third quarter.

Mbugua gave Louisville a second interior presence off the bench, going 5 of 8 from the field with eight defensive rebounds. Between Joyner, Mbugua and Elif Istanbulluoglu, who added five rebounds as a starter, Lindenwood got very few clean looks around the rim.

Roberts, Berry and a deep bench

Roberts did her damage without a single 3. She went 0 of 4 from deep but 5 of 11 inside the arc and 5 of 6 at the free throw line, adding three steals in 26 minutes. It was another productive night after she and Berry led the Cardinals past Southern Indiana 80-57 on Sunday.

Berry ran the offense with a team-high seven assists and no turnovers. Cradle, a freshman, gave Louisville 11 points, two assists and three steals in 21 minutes. Cradle and Mbugua each scored half their points in the fourth quarter to get into double figures, per Louisville.

Louisville's bench outscored Lindenwood's by itself. The Cardinals got 34 points from their reserves, according to the school, while Lindenwood's entire team managed 35. Walz used 12 players, and nobody logged more than 26 minutes, which is exactly what a coach wants on a short turnaround.

A tough night for the Lions

For Lindenwood, an Ohio Valley Conference program, this was a reality check. The Lions posted their lowest scoring total of the season, per the AP. Junior guard Violet McNece led them with six points and five rebounds and hit two 3s. Senior Cadence Dykstra added five points, four rebounds and three assists, but also committed six turnovers. Bianca Silva scored five off the bench, sophomore center Jarius Powers added four on 2 of 4 shooting, and freshman Jazlyn Powell blocked two shots and hit her only 3.

The Lions did win the fourth quarter 11-9, opening the period with six straight points that included a 3 from McNece. They also shot a respectable 5 of 14 from 3. It was everything inside the arc, and every possession that ended before a shot went up, that sank them.

The Lions now get a breather. Lindenwood goes back home to Hyland Arena in St. Charles, Mo., to face Stephens College on Friday, Nov. 13, at 11 a.m. for Education Day.

What is next for Louisville

Louisville has sat at No. 7 in both AP polls released so far, the preseason poll and the Nov. 9 update, and nothing about the first four games suggests a slide. A crowd of 6,731 watched this one, per ESPN, and saw the same formula that has carried the Cardinals all month: relentless ball pressure, a long frontcourt, and a rotation deep enough that fatigue never shows up. The 3-point shooting is the one thing worth watching. A 6 of 29 night will not matter against Lindenwood, but it will matter against teams that can score back.

The Cardinals are 4-0 and rolling, but the schedule changes fast. Louisville plays at Ball State on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network. Then comes the first real heavyweight test of the season, when No. 4 UConn visits on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 5:30 p.m.

UConn comes in after a loss at Michigan and a bounce-back win over Iowa, and it will be the best team Louisville has seen. The Cardinals have shown they can make life miserable for overmatched opponents. The Huskies will tell everyone whether that defense travels up a weight class. After UConn, Louisville hosts Tennessee State on Nov. 17 before heading to Alaska Anchorage on Nov. 21.

Sources: ESPN box score, Louisville Athletics, Lindenwood Athletics, The Associated Press.

Photo: Louisville Athletics.